Accused have named a patient who underwent surgery in Pune

Larger links may be unearthed after three more are arrested

The accused have told the police that they had given their visiting cards to Ramalinga, who is now at large, the sources said.

After it became public that the police arrested Mohan Kumar, Mahadeva and Ravi in connection with the kidney trade, Ramalinga and a few others suspected to be part of the racket have gone missing, the sources said.

Besides Ramalinga, the police are on the lookout for Hotte Nagaraja of Lakkasandra in Bangalore, suspected to be the kingpin of the racket, his accomplice Krishna and also Ramu and Duggaiah of Nelamangala.

Ramu and Duggaih were said to have helped the accused in fabricating documents required for getting kidney transplantation approved by the Authorisation Committee set up under the Human Organs Transplantation Act, 1994.

The sources said investigations were on to ascertain whether the documents seized from the accused were genuine or fake. Further, the accused have even named a patient, who reportedly underwent kidney transplantation in a Pune hospital, to whom they had arranged a donor from here, the sources said.

The larger links could be unravelled only after the suspects, who are at large, are apprehended and questioned, the sources said.

According to Bangalore Rural district Superintendent of Police K. Sreenivasa, the racket busted by the Nelamangala police was different from the one unearthed in 1995. “In the earlier case, the kidneys were removed without the knowledge of the person. However, in the present instance, people had given their kidneys on their own, apparently for money,” he said.

Even as the Bangalore Rural district police are transferring the case to the Bangalore city police, some senior officers say the investigations should be done by the CoD, which had handled a similar case earlier, the sources said.

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